History writing in Islamic Egypt was highly developed and no country in the Middle East has a richer or more developed tradition. This book is a collection of essays by leading scholars in the field, examining different authors, their works and the intellectual climate in which they flourished. Due prominence is given to the great historians of the Mamluk period (c.1260-1517) but also to the less well-known writers of the Ottoman period. The essays are also enlivened by insights into personalities and customs of the time.This book will be of interest to historians of the Islamic world in mediaeval and modern times, and to all those who are concerned with history writing as an intellectual discourse.